Well, thank you for the song.
Open the Scriptures this evening for our study. Back to the book
of Revelation of our Lord Jesus, and we're in chapter 6. Isaiah,
not Isaiah, Revelation chapter 6, sorry. Back in the fifth chapter of
the book of the Revelation, John witnessed something most
unusual. He saw in the book of God, in
the hand of God, a book. A book sealed with seven seals. This book in the hand of God
is the book that within it are all the purposes of God, everything
that God has ordained to do. And he sees the book sealed with
seven seals. I said this morning that's a
scroll. not as we have a book like you
have your Bible, but a scroll as in paper that's rolled and
then unrolled to read it. And John sees this scroll sealed
up. Unless the seals are broken,
The purpose of God won't be executed, and unless the seals are broken
and the book is opened, then nobody can even know what's in
the book. You can't know what God's going
to do. And I won't revisit that much,
but just to say this, that John did see the Lord Jesus as the
lamb, as that lamb who had been slaughtered Lamb who had died
for our sins according to the Scriptures and upon the basis
of Him having prevailed over all the enemies of His people.
Over Satan, over sin, over the world, over death, over the grave,
having been victorious over all of the enemies of His people.
Our Lord Jesus is awarded exaltation. And therefore, He steps up to
the throne of God. He takes the book out of the
hand of Him who sat upon the throne. And He is going to execute
God's decrees. I do rejoice this evening to
say to you and I rejoice in my own soul knowing that that one
who executes God's will, that one who governs all things according
to His own purpose and by His awesome power is our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the governor of the nations
in everything that He does. He does for the glory of the
Father He is still the Father's servant. The day is going to
come in the end when He gives all things back to the Father.
That's the end, when the end comes. He works everything out
for God's glory, the glory of the Father, and He works all
things out for the good of His people. And that's so encouraging
to the Lord's people. And then we get to chapter 6
and we see that the Lamb of God As the Lamb begins to open up
the seals of this seven-sealed scroll, He's opening the first
seal. Notice in chapter 6 in verse
1, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals. He is the Lamb of God. In the book of the Revelation,
our Lord Jesus is referred to as the Lamb 27 times. It's interesting
to notice in the book of the Revelation that the word Lamb
is used 28 times, but just 27 referring to the Savior. I'll
show you the exception to that. Go over to chapter 13, and we
actually looked at this, I think, maybe a couple of weeks ago,
chapter 13 and verse 11. This is the only other time the
word lamb is used and it doesn't have reference to the Savior.
It has reference to Antichrist. It has reference to false religion.
And I beheld another beast. Where does it come out of? Out
of the earth. Our Lord Jesus, God's Lamb, where
did He come from? He came from above. He came from
heaven. This is Satan's counterfeit. This one is disguised
as a lamb. This is anti-Christ. This is
false religion. And I beheld another beast come
up out of the earth. Out of the earth. Notice he had
two horns like a lamb. He's not the lamb. He's like
a lamb. He's disguised as a lamb, but
he's not the lamb because he's got the voice of a dragon. Our Lord Jesus is set forth in
the book of the Revelation as the Lamb of God. 27 times. 27 times. And I think it's, and
things like this kind of interest me, just kind of a side note,
27, that's the number of the books of the New Testament. Here's
the Lamb of God. We've already talked about the
throne of God. And that's mentioned in the entire
book of the Revelation. 39 times the number of the books
in the Old Testament. Here's the Word of God. Here's
the Scriptures. Here's the entirety of the Word
of God. Setting forth God's Lamb. Who's
now upon the throne of glory as the governor of the nations.
Having been exalted upon the basis of successfully finishing
the work. that God gave him to do. So John
sees the Lamb. And indeed, throughout the Word
of God, the Lamb stands very prominent. In Genesis chapter
4, to begin with, in Abel's sacrifice, we see that he brought the firstling
of his flock. And there our Lord is typified
as the Lamb. In Genesis 22, in verse 8, we
see the Lamb of God off His side. For there, Abraham says to Isaac,
Isaac says, Father, here's the wood, here's the fire, where's
the offering? Where's the burnt offering? You
can't worship God without a burnt offering. You couldn't worship
God then without a burnt offering, and you can't worship God even
now without a burnt offering. There's got to be a sacrifice.
It's got to be that which satisfies God's justice and God's law. Isaac knew they were going to
worship because he heard his father say to the two servants,
I and the lad will go yonder and worship. We got the fire,
you got the fire, you got the knife, I got the wood on my back,
where is the lamb? And Abraham says, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. In the book
of Exodus, chapter number 12, the lamb is described. A male
of the first year in the strength of his days, without spot or
without blemish, this lamb is to be put up for four days and
inspected for its fitness and its worthiness to be the Passover
lamb. In Isaiah 53 verses 1-7 we see
the Lamb personified. Here we see for the first time
in Isaiah chapter 53 that this Lamb is both man and God. He is man and God. He is brought
as a Lamb to the shearers. And as a sheep before her shearers
is done, so He openeth not His mouth. And then in John 1.29,
John the Baptist identifies the Lamb. We've looked at the Lamb
in picture and typology and prophecy through the Old Testament. And
then you get to the New Testament, you get to John chapter 1, and
John the Baptist says, Behold, the Lamb of God! There He is
right there. Who is He? He's Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Son of God. He is the
Son of Man. He's identified in 1 Peter chapter
1 verses 18 and 19. He's the Lamb who's crucified. We're redeemed with the precious
blood of that Lamb who's without spot and without blemish. Then
in Revelation chapter 5, we see the Lamb magnified as we've studied
before. And here we see in Revelation
chapter 6, this is the Lamb executing the will of God And we'll, at
the end of the chapter, we'll see the Lamb in wrath as the
judge. We noted this morning in our
studies the words of the first beast and the second beast and
the third beast and the fourth beast. They all say the same
thing, come and see. Come and see. And now we see
in the second verse the beginning of the arrival of the four horsemen
of the apocalypse. And I want to repeat to you what
I said this morning, and I would say to those of you who weren't
in the service this morning, or to those of you who are watching
on the internet and you didn't see or listen to the message
this morning, what I had to say this morning served as an introduction
to this message. And so I would recommend that
you go back and listen to that at your leisure in order to kind
of get the foundation of the groundwork of this. Who is this? As John begins to, as he sees
the book being opened, who is this who's opening the book?
It is the Lamb of God. It is the Lamb of God. It's the
same one who set forth, and let me just read this to you, the
second verse. And I saw and behold a white
horse, and he that sat on him had a bow. And not only did he
have a bow, but on his head was a crown given to him, and he
went forth conquering and to conquer. This is the same one
he's identified over in Revelation chapter 19, if you look over
there. Here's a parallel passage in
Revelation chapter 19, look at verse 11. And remember we've
said that there are seven visions in the book of the Revelation.
And each of the visions, they take us from the first advent
of our Savior to the second advent of our Savior. And now we're
getting over toward the end of the openings of the book of God
and indeed toward the end of the At least the next to the
last vision. John sees here verse 11, 19 verse
11, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. He sees a white
horse back there in chapter 6. He that sat upon him was called
faithful and true. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire
and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no
man knew but he himself. And then he says he was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word
of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon also white horses. Note that he was
on a white horse and they're on white horses. They're robed, clothed in fine
linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treaded the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings
and Lord of lords." This is the same one that John sees over
here in chapter 6. He is the Lamb who is also the
Judge, as we saw when our brother read to us this passage in Revelation
chapter 6 this morning. So as we look here in chapter
6 and the second verse, several things I just want to point out
to you. Number one, the first beast draws John's attention
to the fact that there is a rider on a white horse. And first of
all, I want to focus on the horse. And I saw and behold a white
horse. In the Word of God, in the Bible,
most often when you read about the horse, it's a symbol of warfare,
it's a symbol of conquest, it's a symbol of great power. God
asked Job. Go back to Job chapter 39. Let
me just read a few verses here. This is what God asked Job. Job
chapter 39, look at verse 19. Job 39, 19. This is the Lord
speaking to Job. He says to Job, hast thou given
the horse strength? Clothed his neck with thunder.
Job 39 now verse 20. Canst thou make him afraid as
a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is
terrible. He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth
in His strength. He goeth on to meet the armed
men. He mocketh at fear. He is not
affrighted, neither turneth He back from the sword. The quiver
rattleth against Him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth
the ground with fierceness and rage." In other words, nothing
keeps Him back. He's always going forward. Neither
believeth He that it's the sound of the trumpet to retreat. He
wants to keep on going. He's a war horse. A war horse. He saith among the trumpets,
Ha! Ha! He smelleth the battle afar
off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting. And what God
is saying to Job is, Job, look at the horse. It is the most
awesome, powerful creature for warfare. And throughout the Old
Testament, it is always the horse that men rode in battle and in
warfare, whether in victory or in defeat. And John sees here in Revelation
chapter 6, he sees a rider on a white horse. This is the first
of the four horsemen. Proverbs 21.31 says the horse
is prepared for the day of battle. Whatever this is, it's got to
do with battle. It's got to do with warfare. So the beast, the first beast
calls John's attention to the fact there's a horse. Secondly,
it is a white horse. White horse. The same as in chapter
19. What is the significance of this, of white? It's the color of purity. It's
the color of righteousness. It speaks of that which is from
God. White. Though your sands be as
scarlet, I shall make them whiter than snow. Wash me, David said
in Psalm 51. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Look at the usage of white. in
the book of the Revelation. Go back to chapter 1 and verse
14. That which is white is divine. It signifies that which is of
God. That which is divine. Revelation
chapter 1 and verse 14. John, he sees in his first vision
the glorified Christ. And He says in verse 14, His
head and His hairs were white like wool. White as snow. White as snow. There's His deity. There's His divinity. There's
His purity. There's His righteousness. Notice
in chapter 2 and verse 17. Chapter 2 and verse 17. He's
writing to the church at Pergamos. He says to the church at Pergamos
in verse 17, chapter 2, He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the hidden manna." What is the hidden manna? Well,
it's the same manna that God's people feast on throughout our
lives. It's Christ Jesus, the bread
of life. And I will give him a white stone. You have to remember back in
these days, The Romans, when somebody went to court, maybe
a man goes to court because he tried for some crime that he's
accused of, the verdict comes in of the judges. And the verdict
was put in like a bowl. If they found him guilty, black
stone. They put a black stone in. The
black stone is pulled out and they say, you've been found guilty
of all charges. But if the judges, after weighing
the evidence, judge that the man is innocent, he's done no
wrong. White stone. White stone. Christ Jesus is saying at the
judgment, I'll give you a white stone because you're innocent. Now wait. We're all sinners.
Wait, we've all broken God's law. Wait, we're all guilty of
violating God's commandments. But in the Lord Jesus, all of
our sins have been put away, and the great judge, who judges
according to the standard of righteousness, says to these
saints of God, those who overcome by faith, he said, I'll give
you a white stone. innocent of all charges. That's
us standing in the purity and the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He says, and in the stone,
a new name. A new name which no man knows
except Him who receives it. What is this new name? It is
the name of our Savior, the Lord, our righteousness. We have the
same name that He has according to the book of Jeremiah. White
stone. White stone. How can you be approved
of God? Does that bother you? Do you
think about this? Do you meditate upon this? I'm a sinner. I'm guilty before
God. How can I get a white stone?
I want God to approve of me. You say, well, I'll do better. I'll join the church. I'll get
active in religion. But those things won't put away
your sins. That alone puts away sins which
comes from God Himself, the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
washes away our sins, makes us whiter than the snow. And He
said, I'll give you a white stone. You're innocent before Me. You
are righteous before Me. Not in yourself. He is our worthiness. He is our righteousness. And
He is our fitness. I'll give you a white stone. And then look at chapter 3, verses
4 and 5. He writes to the church at Sardis.
He says, Thou hast a few names. They have not defiled their garments,
and they shall walk with Me white, for they're worthy. He that overcometh
the same shall be wrapped with, robed with, clothed in white
raiment, and I'm not going to blot his name out of the book
of life. And you know what this white
raiment is, that's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you go through the book of the Revelation and over and over
again, I could give you several references right now. Right now. that set forth His righteousness. The robes in which we're robed. In fact, look at chapter 4 and
verse 4. Here around the throne of God, the 24 seats, here are
the 24 elders. This is typical of all the redeemed
of the Lord. 12 from the Old Testament, 12
from the New Testament, the 12 patriarchs, the 12 sons of Jacob,
the 12 apostles. These being typical of all the
ransomed of God. Around the throne of God, twenty-four
seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders. They
were sitting, and guess what they got on? White raiment. They got on white garments. All
of them clothed just alike. Do you remember the story over
in the book of Matthew of the king who was going to give a
feast for his son? a wedding feast, went out and
compelled people to come in, and people came in and everybody's
supposed to wear the same thing at those wedding feasts. Everybody's
supposed to come in and get a white robe when they came in. It's
like if you were coming in here, and if that had been our custom,
We'd have some coat hangers back there, and you'd come in and
say, well, I'm looking for an extra small, or I'm looking for
extra large, or whatever size you happened to be. And you get
your white robe, and you put your white robe on, and you come
in. That's the way the custom was
back in those days. But one man, he dared to come
in without a wedding garment. And out of all the people there,
all this mass, people are dressed in white. Dressed in that symbol
of purity and righteousness and heavenliness. One man stands
out. He had his own garment and he
liked it so much he said, I don't need the king's garment. I think
I just bought this new suit. Looks good. I'm just going to
wear it in. And oh, the king was wroth. The king was wroth. How dare
you come in here in your garment? You've snubbed your nose at that
which I provided freely, a white garment. The righteousness of
Jesus Christ. Bind them hand and foot and cast
them into hell. You got to be robed in white.
You've got to have the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness
established by His obedience unto death, even the death of
the cross. You get further over into the
book of the Revelation. Revelation chapter 14, verse
14. Christ Jesus, the Son of Man,
sitting on a white cloud. White cloud. And then, and I'm
just going to read these to you, this last one, Revelation chapter
20 verse 11, what kind of throne do you think He sits on? Gray,
white throne. Gray, white throne. Everywhere
the word white is used in the book of the Revelation, It has
to do with that which is divine. That which is divine. The white
head and hair of Christ Jesus. He is divine. The white stone. The divine approval. The white
robe. It's of divine origin. It's not
something we do. It's not something we produce.
It's not something we sew together by our works. Because salvation
is of the Lord. And here's this white horse.
It's symbolic of the awesome power and purity of Him who rides
on the horse. He is divine. He is the leader. Who is this on this white horse?
He is the captain of the Lord's hosts. He's the captain of our
salvation. He's the rider. He's the rider
on the white horse. Now, as you know, back in olden
days, a king, if he did go to battle,
He only rode a white horse in the victory march. But if a king
or a general went out to battle, he didn't go out to battle riding
a white horse. Why not? It makes him the mark. It makes him a target. So the
kings or the generals, when they went out to go to war, they always
rode on a horse that looked like just every other soldier's horses. But our Lord Jesus, who is the
captain of our salvation, He goes forth on a white horse because
He can't fail and He can't be defeated. He is the bold King
of kings and the Lord of lords. He is riding on a white horse
because He's the victor. His conquest is so certain that
even as He goes out to battle, He's riding on a white horse. Let all the demons of hell take
target at Jesus Christ the Lord. He's the victor. He wins. He's always successful. Isaiah
chapter 42 says, He shall not fail. If the Savior you trust
in, if the Savior you've got confidence in, if He can fail,
if He is somehow ever less than totally successful, you've got
the wrong Savior. Our Savior never fails. He rides on the white horse.
He rides out front of His armies because He's the victor already.
He's the victor. Watch this. He's got a bow in
His hand. Read the text. Go back to chapter
6, verse 2. I saw and behold a white horse.
He that sat on him had a bow. What's he got in his hand there?
He's got a bow. That's his only weapon. That's
his only weapon. He's got a bow. What does that
mean? He's got power to make war. This is said to be the weapon
used by God. Look at Job chapter 6 real quick,
and then I'll give you several other references if you want
to jot them down. Job chapter 6. This is the weapon
of God's choice. Job chapter 6, look at verse
1. But Job answered and said, O
that my grief were throughly weighed my calamity, laid in
the balances thereof." Job 6 verse 3. Verse 3, excuse me. For now
I would be heavier than the sand of the sea, therefore my words
are swallowed up, for the arrows of the Almighty are within me. God took His bow, and He aimed
His arrows at me, that's what Job said, and He hit me. He hit
me right in the heart. You see, our Lord Jesus is the
mighty conqueror. As it says in the last statement
of the second verse of Revelation chapter 6, He goes forth conquering
and to conquer. And He has a bow. There's an
interesting little statement found over in the book of 2 Samuel. And it's about Jonathan, Saul's
son. And it says there of Jonathan,
he had a bow. He had a bow. And it never came
back, he never came back empty when he went out with that bow.
In other words, everything he aimed at, he hit it. That's what
that means. It never came back empty. Jonathan,
he's going out hunting. Put that quiver of arrows over
his shoulder. He's got his bow and he went
out. Whatever he aimed at, he hit. If he goes out to warfare,
whatever enemy he aimed at, whoever he aimed the arrow at, it always
hit its mark. He was such a marksman. Such
a marksman. Our Lord Jesus rides as the captain
of our salvation upon the white horse and He's got a bow. And
I promise you this, whatever He aims an arrow at, it's going
to hit its target. It will always. He can't miss. He can't miss. Now this may speak
of His victories over the enemy. But I rather suspect that the
victories over the enemy is pictured in Revelation chapter 19, where
he goes forth and it says he has a sword. Right? A sword. Right here he's got
a bow. And he's got arrows. And you know what he does? He
shoots forth the message of the gospel. And every era that he shoots
will find its mark. And sometimes he has a whole
quiver full of eras. Like on the day of Pentecost.
And our sovereign savior who went back to glory having accomplished
redemption. Having ascended back to the very
throne of God, the coronation of the Lamb of God has taken
place when He received the book out of the hand of Him who sat
upon the throne. Our Lord Jesus sent His Spirit. And then on the day of Pentecost,
in my mind's eye, I can see Him pulling out an arrow of conviction. And he pulls back the bow and,
boy, hits that one, and another one, and another one, and another
one. Thousands of arrows fly. They're pulled out of his quiver. The bow is in the hand of the
mighty Redeemer who rides on a white horse and He conquers
every one of them sinners. I think of Saul of Tarsus. He
had an arrow for him. He pulled back the bow of grace,
and that air of conviction hit him right in the heart. And what
about you? Weren't you the target? You were the target of the airs
of His grace? I was. He never misses. He said, He said, My word shall
go forth and it shall always accomplish that which I purpose. If he puts an arrow in the bow,
it will find its mark. Oh God, shoot me in the heart.
That's what I say. Don't you? Oh, take aim at me. Take aim at me. I want the sword
of justice. I want the bow and the arrow
of your grace to pierce my heart. That's what He does. He never misses. That psalm that
Alan read to us, Psalm 45, go over there to Psalm 45. I know
this by nature, we're the king's enemies. We are the king's enemies. God help us. God have mercy on
us, we're His enemies. But the blood of the Lord Jesus
has redeemed many of His enemies. Notice here in Psalm 45, look
at verse 3, "...gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty,
with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously."
I say, do you believe in a prosperity gospel? Absolutely. The gospel
prospers in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ because of
truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies whereby the people fall unto thee. And
I tell you, I have fallen Due to the Arab's grace having been
shot into my heart, and many of you have as well. There's an interesting story
over in 1 Kings chapter 22. It got King Jehoshaphat of Judah
and King Ahab of Israel. They're going to war against
the Syrians, King Ben-Hadad. The Syrians especially, they
want King Ahab. King Ahab says to Jehoshaphat,
hey, you put on your kingly garments and ride out front, will you? I don't know why Jehoshaphat,
he did that. And all the archers, they, oh,
here comes the king. And then somebody said, no, wrong
king. That's not him. And King Ben-Hadad
said, well, let's all go home then. And one of his soldiers
said, well, I got one arrow left. He put it in his bow, and the
scripture says he shot it at a venture. I got it as an adventure. In other words, he wasn't aiming
it anywhere. I just, I got one more arrow,
I might as well let it go. And he did and turned to go back
and that arrow flew, directed by God's purpose and God's providence. It caught King Ahab right between
the harness of his armor. And he died on the battlefield. And you know I was thinking while
I was preparing this message, I shoot as it were arrows at
a venture. I don't know where they're going
to go. But God never shoots at a venture. See, like preaching the gospel
is kind of like shooting a shotgun. It just spreads everywhere. But
our Lord shoots like an arrow. It's going to hit a target. Maybe
just one error. Maybe he won't be pleased to
even put an error in the bow. But then again, maybe he will.
Maybe two or three. And if you're his target, he's
going to hit you. Because you see, you, before
the world began, were an object of everlasting love and grace. Your name was written down in
the Lamb's Book of Life. And the Son of God came to save,
to seek and to save that which was lost, came to save even folks
like you. He shed His blood to redeem you. And now He sends His Spirit. And the Spirit of God draws sinners
unto Himself. That's the arrow of grace finds
its target. It finds its target. Our Lord Jesus had a bow in His
hand. And I've got to say this too,
here from chapter 6 and verse 2. There was something that was
given to Him. You know what it was? A crown.
A crown. It's given to Him. He's worthy
to receive that crown. Because He has conquered all
enemies, He's put away the sins of His people, He's redeemed
us by His own blood, He's worthy to receive the crown. What do
we sing this morning? Crown Him with many crowns. Who is He? He's the Lamb upon
His throne. And then one last thing, He went
forth conquering and to conquer. He went forth. Where did He go
forth from? The covenant of grace. He went
forth from the covenant of grace. Our eternal surety. God the Father
gave Him a people more numerous than the sands of the seashore
or the stars in the sky. And the Son of God received them
as a gift from the Father. And we were in union with the
Lord Jesus Christ even from before the foundation of the world.
And our great Savior, the mighty Prince of God, the Governor of
the nations, He went forth from the covenant of grace to conquer
His people. And He conquers us by His grace. He sends forth the arrows of
conviction. Says He went forth to conquer. He went forth conquering and
to conquer. And understand this, and I'll
give you this and then I'll quit. This seal is being opened all
through this gospel age. This isn't a one-time thing.
This is what's going on now. So what is the Lord doing now?
He's drawing His people unto Himself. He's shooting arrows
from His bow of grace. Arrows of conviction. Have they
pierced your heart? What? He always hits the target. He goes forth. He's conquering. He always conquers. always conquered. That's the first horseman of
the apocalypse. It's the Lord Jesus riding on
the white horse of victory and conquest. Riding on the war horse. But this is a war for our souls. And He comes to us in grace and
in mercy. And He gets us. This is effectual
grace, that's what this is. The effectual grace of the King.
Well, let's sing a closing song.